Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Think the Crazy Christians Can't Get Any Crazier? THINK AGAIN!

NEWS FLASH FROM WING NUT LAND: Abortions are the result of Lesbian Womb Envy

h/t to towelroad.com for this one ... an excerpt from The 700 Club where Pat Robertson and his gal pal Terry Meeuwsen are discussing Planned Parenthood. Let's listen in, shall we? (And no, you really couldn't make this stuff up)

Pat Robertson: The far-left is livid about killing babies. They want to kill do this, they want to destroy ... If a woman is a lesbian, what advantage does she have over a married woman? Or what deficiency does she have?

Meeuwsen: Well she can’t have children

Robertson: That’s exactly right. And so if these married women don’t have children, if they abort their babies, then that kind of puts them on a level playing field. And you say, nobody’s there to express that? Isn’t that shocking, well think about it a little bit ladies and gentlemen.

And there you have it! I'm not sure what it is you HAVE ... the words "paranoid poppycock" somehow come unbidden to my mind. (you can watch it yourself on YouTube) But remember this, boys and girls, the next time someone suggests these are folks we can reason with.

10 comments:

One of the Hebrew prophets had a vision where God spoke to a "sinful nation, people laden with iniquity" who were said to be "utterly estranged!" With those spiritual orphans, God then still directly invited them, "Come let us argue it out." Those "estranged" were urged to "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow" in spite of their lack of love up until that point (Isaiah 1). To pessimistically deny that someone can ever reason as an excuse not to challenge any of their words is to deny the core notion of transformation that Christianity holds forth. As evidence of the hope that people can change, consider: How many have we known (possibly even ourselves) who formerly did not want to listen to reason, yet now know God's message of love? To consider someone irredeemable is not the way of the Jesus i know.

"(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

I have to say he's the one conservative fringe figure who ever mentions lesbians. He clearly fears women who don't need men, where as most conservatives are hung up about gay men having sex. These guys have so much screwed up baggage, they would keep a shrink busy for 20 years.

Lesbians, who may have deep seated conflicts about having children in a natural--God designed way, through sexual intercourse, could very well take themselves [conveniently] out of the Abortion Debate... and claim...'this doesn't pertain to me...so I'm not going to take a position!'

I just read a really interesting interview with The Rev. John Merz, an Episcopal priest in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on the FaithStreet blog which you can find here: http://blog.faithstreet.com/leaders-speak-a-talk-with-rev-john-merz-of-th

Mr. Merz has a very interesting perspective on Christianity and life, and he would probably agree with many of the views expressed on this excellent blog, and would, I suspect, lament the exposure given to the Pat Robertsons of the world....

LG Marshall - You wanted a lesbian pro-lifer? Hello, here I am. A lesbian mother of six, three of whom I have given birth.

I am pro-life because I respect the intelligence of every woman to make a decision for herself about her life - including reproductive choice.

I happen to subscribe to the official position of TEC in that I believe that abortions are, in essence, a tragedy. However, because I cherish life, I will support to the death a woman's right to make a choice about her reproductive life.

Thank you, Susan, for lifting up this particular piece of foolishness from the wing nuts on the Right. It's important for us to know that, even in 2011, this sort of stuff is going on. We ignore it at our own peril.

Welcome to my blog ...

... where I try to be really clear about what I'm clear about. For example:

Religious persecution is when you're prevented from exercising your beliefs, not when you're prevented from IMPOSING your beliefs.

========

Until we end the blatant and indefensible discrimination of DOMA we are not living up to the pledge we make to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, we are not providing the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to same-sex couples and we are failing to defend the self-evident truth that our forbearers fought to protect: that ALL people are created equal.

============ Using "biblical standards" to condemn those who understand that sexual orientation is morally neutral makes as much sense as using "biblical standards" to condemn astronomers who understand that the earth revolves around the sun. The Bible may have said it but that doesn't always settle it. ============ It's liberty and justice for all -- not some. It's respect the dignity of every human being -- not just straight ones. Got it? Great. Let's do it.

====== In order to keep moving forward toward liberty and justice for all we can't just be right about what the 1st Amendment protects. We have to be smart about how we respond to those who skipped the 9th Commandment and think lying is a Traditional Family Value. ======= Jesus said "Love your neighbor." Not "Love your neighbor unless your neighbor is gay."

Basic Bio

A cradle Episcopalian second generation Dodger fan ENFJ native of Los Angeles I was ordained in 1996 and currently serve as a Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena.
My family consists of my wife Lori, 2 dogs, (Luna and Betsy), 3 cats (Maui, Cherokee and Harold) and our four nearly-grown kids: Jim, Brian, Grace and Emily.
My life in the church has included everything from Junior Altar Guild with my Aunt Gretchen to my “obligatory young adult lapsed phase” to a tour of duty on the St. Paul’s, Ventura vestry where I also worked as parish secretary to a life-heart-soul changing experience as part of the Cursillo community to serving on my parish ECW Board to seminary at the School of Theology in Claremont to associate/day school chaplain positions at St. Mark’s, Altadena and St. Peter’s, San Pedro to Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing to my current parish position at All Saints Church. It’s been a long and winding road and the journey continues: an inch at a time.

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This blog is the personal weblog of one Susan Lynn Russell. The opinions expressed herein are hers and hers alone. The postions taken on matters theological or political (or anything else, for that matter) are in no way to be construed as the official positions of any other person, institution, group or organization.

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“Faith in action is called politics. Spirituality without action is fruitless and social action without spirituality is heartless. We are boldly political without being partisan. Having a partisan-free place to stand liberates the religious patriot to see clearly, speak courageously, and act daringly.” -- Ed Bacon

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"It's time for "tolerant" religious people to acknowledge the straight line between the official anti-gay theologies of their denominations and the deaths of these young people. Nothing short of changing our theology of human sexuality will save these young and precious lives." -- The Rt Rev Gene Robinson

"How can you initiate someone into the Body of Christ and then treat them like they’re half-assed baptized?" - The Rt Rev Barbara Harris

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"I'm so glad Mary didn't wait for the formulation of a Doctrine of the Incarnation before she said 'Yes' to God." -- Ed Bacon

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“We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief. Nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief. At the same time as our constitution prohibits state religion, establishment of it protects the free exercise of all religions. And walking this fine line requires government to be strictly neutral.” -- Ronald Reagan

Let's be clear. The fact that the State authorizes a marriage in no way compels any Church to perform or recognize it. Marriage equality merely guarantees equality under the law to all citizens; it does not compel churches to do anything.-- Katherine Ragsdale